1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a distributed printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is already known a distributed printing method to distribute a printing job for printing multiple pages of originals to a plurality of multifunction peripherals (MFPs) connected to a network to increase the print speed.
However, in the conventional distributed printing method, a device which is a source of distribution of a printing job (hereinafter, referred to as a “parent device”) searches for a network-connected distribution destination device capable of distributed printing (hereinafter, referred to as a “distribution destination child device”) and determines an amount of printing to be distributed to the distribution destination child device. Therefore, even if a child device, which was incapable of distributed printing because the child device was not connected to the network or was out of order at the time of determination of the distribution destination child device, becomes capable of distributed printing in the middle of the distributed printing, the parent device cannot distribute a printing job to the child device. In the conventional distributed printing method, to distribute a printing job to the child device which becomes capable of distributed printing in the middle of the distributed printing in this way, the parent device has to interrupt the distributed printing being executed and redetermine a distribution destination child device and an amount of printing to be distributed.
To cope with this problem, there is proposed a system causing a distribution destination child device to periodically ask a parent device whether there is a divided printing job and if there is a divided printing job, to spontaneously take and execute the divided printing job (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-186197).
However, in a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2008-186197, the parent device divides a printing job and therefore cannot determine an amount of printing taking a device capacity of the distribution destination child device into account, which results in a decrease in efficiency. Furthermore, a unit of division is on a per-function basis; therefore, an amount of printing to be distributed is likely to be smaller than a capacity of a candidate distribution destination child device, and it is difficult to utilize a plurality of network-connected distribution destination child devices effectively.